Colbert among names to speak at CGI U

Stephen Colbert will be one of more than a dozen celebrities and academics converging at Washington University in less than one month for the sixth annual Clinton Global Initiative University meeting.

The Comedy Central actor will be joining Chelsea Clinton, “Friends” actor Matthew Perry and former President Bill Clinton at the conference that takes place from April 5-7.

CGI U released the full list of speakers on its website Tuesday. Michael Sherraden, the founding director of Washington University’s Center for Social Development, will also be speaking at the event.

Student Life reported in January that Twitter creator Jack Dorsey and Salman Khan, founder and executive director of Khan Academy, will be coming to campus as well.

“Having President Clinton and all these highly acclaimed people, including big celebrity names like Stephen Colbert and some of the names released yesterday, really adds to the visibility of the event,” Rob Wild, assistant vice chancellor, said. “This is exactly, frankly, what we were hoping for when we agreed to do this.”

“Hopefully some of our students will be able to see Stephen Colbert, [but] for many of us, the side benefit of having nationally recognized leaders not only in the entertainment industry but in other fields…is they’re going to come in and see our campus—they’re going to see how great our students are,” Wild added.

For a number of Colbert fans on campus, the news he will be coming to campus is a reason to look forward to the conference.

“I followed him a lot during his presidential [coverage]. I used to watch a lot of Colbert,” freshman Amanda Shi said. “I like his comedy overall just because normally I think news is really dry.”

Not all students were similarly excited by the news.

“I wish I could go,” freshman Roo Hiremath said. “The only people I know who are talking about it are in Carnaval, which is the same weekend, so a lot of people can’t go.”

Hiremath said the conflict should not affect Carnaval as much as Macklemore, whose WUStock performance was moved to March 24, would have, but it is still disappointing.